Page 4 - ARUBA TODAY

A4 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 22 augusT 2017
‘A primal experience’: Americans dazzled by solar eclipse

Continued from Front amazed to see teenagers
Passengers aboard a cruise actually look up from their
ship in the Caribbean cellphones.
watched it unfold as Bon- Patrick Schueck, a con-
nie Tyler sang her 1983 hit struction company presi-
“Total Eclipse of the Heart.” dent from Little Rock,
Several minor-league base- Arkansas, brought his
ball teams — one of them, 10-year-old twin daugh-
the Columbia Fireflies, out- ters Ava and Hayden to
fitted for the day in glow- Bald Knob Cross of Peace
in-the-dark jerseys — briefly in Alto Pass, Illinois, a more
suspended play. than 100-foot cross atop a
At the White House, despite mountain. Schueck said at
all the warnings from ex- first his girls weren’t very in-
perts about the risk of eye terested in the eclipse. One
damage, President Donald sat looking at her iPhone.
Trump took off his eclipse “Quickly that changed,”
glasses and looked directly he said. “It went from them
at the sun. being aloof to being in to-
The path of totality, where tal amazement.” Schueck
the sun was 100 percent called it a chance to “do
obscured by the moon, something with my daugh-
was just 60 to 70 miles (96 Belen Jesuit Preparatory School students look through solar glasses as they watch the eclipse, ters that they’ll remember
to 113 kilometers) wide. But Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, in Miami. for the rest of their lives.”
the rest of North America (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) Astronomers, too, were
was treated to a partial Capitol lawn in Jefferson its TV coverage midway astronomers in Casper, Wy- giddy with excitement.
eclipse, as were Central City, Missouri. “That was through the eclipse, the oming. NASA solar physicist Alex
American and the top of better than any photo.” biggest livestream event in John Hays drove up from Young said the last time
South America. For the youngest observers, the space agency’s history. Bishop, California, for the earthlings had a connec-
Skies were clear along most it seemed like magic. “It can be religious. It makes total eclipse in Salem, Or- tion like this to the heavens
of the route, to the relief of “It’s really, really, really, re- you feel insignificant, like egon, and said the experi- was during man’s first flight
those who feared cloud ally awesome,” said 9-year- you’re just a speck in the ence will stay with him for- to the moon, on Apollo 8 in
cover would spoil the mo- old Cami Smith as she whole scheme of things,” ever. 1968.
ment. gazed at the fully eclipsed said veteran eclipse- “That silvery ring is so hyp- The first, famous Earthrise
“Oh, God, oh, that was sun in Beverly Beach, Or- watcher Mike O’Leary of notic and mesmerizing, it photo came from that mis-
amazing,” said Joe Del- egon. San Diego, who set up his does remind you of wizard- sion and, like this eclipse,
linger, a Houston man who NASA reported 4.4 million camera along with among ry or like magic,” he said. showed us “we are part of
set up a telescope on the people were watching hundreds of other amateur More than one parent was something bigger.”
NASA’s acting adminis-
trator, Robert Lightfoot,
watched with delight from
a plane flying over the
Oregon coast and joked
about the space-agency
official next to him, “I’m
about to fight this man for
a window seat.”
Hoping to learn more
about the sun’s composi-
tion and activity, NASA and
other scientists watched
and analyzed it all from the
ground and the sky, includ-
ing aboard the Internation-
al Space Station.
Citizen scientists monitored
animal and plant behav-
ior as day turned into twi-
light. About 7,000 people
streamed into the Nashville
Zoo just to see the animals’
reaction and noticed how
they got noisier at it got
darker.
The giraffes started running
around crazily in circles
when darkness fell, and
the flamingos huddled to-
gether, though zookeepers
aid it wasn’t clear whether
it was the eclipse or the
noisy, cheering crowd that
spooked them.q